A Comparative Study of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales & Attar’s The Conference of the Birds

Two major works of literature, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Attar’s The Conference of the Birds, display a number of strikingly similarities, in addition to a number of prominent differences. This paper tries to shed light on similarities and differences between these two works; therefore, the story direction, narrative techniques, characterization techniques, and settings of both works are compared. The results shows that both authors used figurative pilgrimage or journey as the mean for self knowledge, both works are the collections of stories that all fit in a larger story and characters present their true personalities through their speeches and their clothes or appearances; Meanwhile The ideas which each author attempts to impart to his readers differ greatly from each other. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales shows the Roman Catholic influences in England society, while Attar’s book is influenced by Islamic and Sufism values and principles of his period.

The Impact of Outdoor Views on Students’ Seat Preference in Learning Environments

A Good learning environment should support students’ choices and attract them to stay. Focusing on outdoor views, this research explores two questions: How important outdoor views are in seat selection in learning environments? How do the view elements influence students’ seating behaviors in learning environments? A seat preference survey and view elements and occupancy rate measurements were conducted in a university library building in Gold Coast, Australia. This study not only echoes the previous research indicating that territory and privacy are important factors for choosing seats in a learning environment; more importantly, this study contributes to the literature with evidence that outdoor views might be an important factor for seat preference. Specifically, sky views and shading views were found positively related to occupancy rate. Based on this point, open views with appropriate shading were found as an optimal outdoor view composition. The singularity of greenery views would less likely be attractive to building occupants

Office Distractions and the Productivity of Building Users: The Effect of Workgroup Sizes and Demographic Characteristics

Knowledge workers are experiencing ever-increasing distractions or unwanted interruptions at workplaces. We explored the effect of unwanted interruptions on an individual’s perceived productivity in various building types, user groups and workgroups. A case study of 68 buildings and their 5149 occupants using the Building Use Studies methodology was employed in this study. The database contains information on the occupants’ perceptions of physical and environmental parameters, including unmined data on the frequency of unwanted interruptions. Pearson’s correlation was used to test the correlation between the variables. In order to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of two or more independent (unrelated) groups, one-way ANOVA was employed to examine the significance of differences in mean scores between various user groups and workgroups. The evidence of clear correlations between the frequency of unwanted interruptions and perceived productivity is detailed in various user groups and in multiple building types. The Pearson correlation coefficients were −0.361 and −0.348 for sustainable and conventional buildings, respectively, demonstrating a lower sensitivity to unwanted interruptions in sustainable buildings. Females and older participants were more sensitive to unwanted interruptions and their productivity levels were reduced much more by unwanted interruptions. Comparing different sized workgroups, the highest sensitivity to unwanted interruptions for occupants in offices shared with more than 8 people was found. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of different user needs and preferences in the design of workplaces

Office Distractions and the Productivity of Building Users: The Effect of Workgroup Sizes and Demographic Characteristics

Knowledge workers are experiencing ever-increasing distractions or unwanted interruptions at workplaces. We explored the effect of unwanted interruptions on an individual’s perceived productivity in various building types, user groups and workgroups. A case study of 68 buildings and their 5149 occupants using the Building Use Studies methodology was employed in this study. The database contains information on the occupants’ perceptions of physical and environmental parameters, including unmined data on the frequency of unwanted interruptions. Pearson’s correlation was used to test the correlation between the variables. In order to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the means of two or more independent (unrelated) groups, one-way ANOVA was employed to examine the significance of differences in mean scores between various user groups and workgroups. The evidence of clear correlations between the frequency of unwanted interruptions and perceived productivity is detailed in various user groups and in multiple building types. The Pearson correlation coefficients were −0.361 and −0.348 for sustainable and conventional buildings, respectively, demonstrating a lower sensitivity to unwanted interruptions in sustainable buildings. Females and older participants were more sensitive to unwanted interruptions and their productivity levels were reduced much more by unwanted interruptions. Comparing different sized workgroups, the highest sensitivity to unwanted interruptions for occupants in offices shared with more than 8 people was found. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of different user needs and preferences in the design of workplaces

Occupant Satisfaction and Comfort in Green Buildings: A Longitudinal Occupant Survey in a Green Building in the Subtropical Climate in Australia

Understanding occupant expectation and feedback is an important part of building performance evaluation. This paper explores occupant satisfaction change during a 10-year period in a green building located in the subtropical zone. Occupant satisfaction at two timestamps, three and ten years after project completion, were compared. It was observed that occupant satisfaction regarding indoor air quality (IAQ), noise and overall building comfort remained unchanged during the 10-year post-occupancy period. This finding suggests that perceived IAQ, noise, and overall satisfaction with buildings may not be biased by point-in-time of surveys, the year weather or sample characteristics. However, satisfaction scores regarding the two parameters of lighting and thermal comfort are likely to be subject to change over time. The change in satisfaction scores in relation to thermal comfort and lighting might be explained in various ways. The change of climate and sky conditions, and different sample characteristics were the two assumptions considered worthy of further investigations. The study found some evidence of a possible correlation between year weather and occupant satisfaction responses. The study also showed that green buildings with natural ventilation may be more susceptible to climate change impacts.Griffith Sciences, School of Environment and ScienceNo Full Tex

Quality of Life (QoL) Survey in Hong Kong: Understanding the Importance of Housing Environment and Needs of Residents from Different Housing Sectors

This study presents a Quality of Life (QoL) survey to understand the influence of the housing environment and needs of residents from different housing sectors. The research focuses on Hong Kong where living conditions have become the main affect for people’s QoL. Through a household survey using a standard instrument “Word Health Organisation (WHO) Quality of Life-BREF”, the article found that among the four WHO QoL domains (Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relations And Environment), Environment, particularly its constitute aspect housing environment was the most influential factor for overall quality of life for the public rental housing sector where low-income people live. This research also found that different groups of people have differing needs of their housing environments: the low-income group needs better location and privacy while the medium and high-income groups need better architectural quality. Based on differentiating their needs and wants, this research argues for prioritizing the low-income group’s needs for effectively improving their QoL

Explaining the Role of Faculty members of medical sciences universities in Dealing with Epidemics: A Qualitative Study

Background: The roles of Faculty members of medical sciences universities in responding to and controlling critical situations and epidemic diseases are critical and of great importance. Objective: This study was aimed to explain the role of faculty members in dealing with epidemics and crises. Materials and Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a content analysis method at Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2020. Thirteen faculty members (physician, Ph.D. in nursing, anesthesiologist, PhD in reproductive health, and Ph.D. in disaster and emergency health) were selected through purposive sampling method, and their viewpoints were surveyed until data saturation was reached. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Based on participants’ experiences, several roles could be considered under 3 main categories: a public educator, a clinical therapist, and a manager. Each of these main categories included several sub-categories.  Based on the participants’ experiences, among faculty members’ roles, the public educator, as the most central role, influences other duties of faculty members. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that medical faculty members have numerous and significant roles in dealing with crises and emerging diseases. Identifying the medical faculty’s roles in coping with epidemics can help better understand the capabilities of these instructors and plan a basis for their greater cooperation and participation in controlling, preventing, and managing crises and emerging diseases. The results of this study can be advantageous in planning training programs and preparing faculty members to deal with epidemics and crises

Green Building Occupant Satisfaction: Evidence from the Australian Higher Education Sector

Universities spend billions of dollars on green buildings as a sustainability commitment. This research investigates occupant satisfaction with indoor environmental quality (IEQ), building design (BD), and facilities management (FM) in five highly ranked green higher educational buildings in the subtropical climate of Australia, in comparison to nine non-green counterparts. The results disclose that the green building users were more consistently satisfied than the non-green building users with BD&FM elements, such as design, needs from facilities, building image, cleaning, the availability of meeting rooms, and storage. On the other hand, the study revealed weaknesses of green buildings in IEQ, such as noise, ventilation, and artificial lighting. The individual environmental control positively correlated with satisfaction in non-green buildings, but did not significantly affect satisfaction in green buildings. This study also identified the influences of non-environmental factors on occupant satisfaction, such as gender, age, sitting close to a window, hours spent in the building and in the workstation, and the number of people sharing office space. The research provides evidence and guidance for investing in, designing, and managing green educational facilities